When is the right time to delete a git feature branch?

git version-control branch
bstpierre picture bstpierre · Aug 3, 2010 · Viewed 26.8k times · Source

I don't want to end up with 82 feature branches hanging around, so I'm wondering what the potential drawbacks are to simply deleting the feature branch as soon as I merge it to master.

Workflow:

git co -b feat-xyz
hack hack
git ci
hack some more
git ci
git co master
git merge feat-xyz
smoke test
git br -d feat-xyz

Any issues here?

Answer

lkraider picture lkraider · Aug 3, 2010

I delete after merge, but I always do a git merge --no-ff, to avoid fast forwarding so that the branch history is visible on the graph. I like to have the history of where the feature branch departed from the development branch and where it joined back:

Merging with or without fast-forwards

This is taken from A successful Git branching model by Vincent Driessen, a very nice workflow to use with git which I apply for most of my projects.

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